DD13 phone usage
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DD13 phone usage
| Wed, 01-09-2008 - 10:01am |
DH is constantly harping on DD13 being on the phone so much. I do not have a problem with it, but he has a BIG problem with it. I can remember being her age and always having a phone glued to my ear (at home anyway, that was long before cell ph's). I have tried to explain to him that is what teenage girls do, they talk on the phone. He just doesn't want to hear that. It's driving me crazy!!

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I'm a phone girl myself and completely understand the desire to chat the evening away.
My 2 DD's are on the phone a lot also, talking and texting. Thankfully, I got unlimited plans for both of them...for the most part, it doesn't bother me, as long as they do what they're supposed to and get to bed at a decent time.
It does bother my DH...maybe because of or in spite of, I dunno, the fact that he makes his living on the phone and usually has at least 2 attached to his head or hip. When he settles in at the end of a long day he doesn't like to hear chatter. The girls then have to figure it out...hole themselves up in their room to talk or be out in the open with us and not talk...
Growing up my parents had a lock on the phone. We were not allowed to use it, at all. If we got incoming calls, and were lucky enough not to have mother simply hang up on the caller, our phone time was limited. To this day, I'm not much of a phone person. A lengthy phone call wears me out. I prefer the Internet.
Well...unless your husband is perfect (and who the heck is?), he's probably got his own irrational or out of control habit or two.
"He says he doesn't understand why they have to talk on the phone if they just left each other."
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This is absolutely normal at that age and, I would say, even necessary. When kids enter the teen years, their friends become all-important to them. It's part of their need to separate from their parents and form their own identity. Of course, we don't have to accept it as an all-consuming activity. As parents, we can definitely set some limits, such as times that are specifically reserved for family. But spending the bulk of their time communicating with friends is normal & healthy, IMO.
Your post hits the nail squarely on the head. I had a difficult adjustment with this around that age. It's quite irrational and your DH may never admit it. But the constant phone use is a new interruption in the family time. The phone has suddenly become more important that *anything* you or the family may be doing.
Your DH is out of the loop from what's being discussed in these
"What the h*** can be SO important!!"
OMG!! I can't tell you how many times I have heard THOSE exact words come out of his mouth!!!!!
I hope that by the time the other two are her age he has mellowed out about the phone thing.
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